Why not a reshuffle in the states as well?

Cabinet changes are a device for ensuring administrative energy, better political management, and electoral results in the hands of the leader of the government in a democracy. On Sunday we are slated to see some important change of personnel at the Centre as the Narendra Modi government enters the last lap of the race, going into the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

There is much that needs tending to. Things aren’t what they were three years ago, and the Prime Minister is just being alert in attempting to pick and choose with care with the help of BJP president and trusted aide Amit Shah, who went round the country recently in assessing the results on the ground of the efforts of Union ministers.

This evidently shows extreme care in consideration of detail. It is surprising in light of this that the PM and the BJP chief, who are known not to leave any stone unturned in trying to achieve results, appear to have paid little attention to the impact of the BJP and its governments in the states.

These days the sheer apathy and disgraceful administrative performances of the Yogi Adityanath government in UP and the M.L.Khattar government in Haryana is the talk of the country after the still mounting toll of children’s deaths in one of UP’s largest government hospitals in Gorakhpur, the CM’s constituency, and the frightful Dera Sacha Sauda-related violence in Panchkula Chandigarh following the conviction for rape of the Dera chief.

This seems to have completely missed Mr Modi and Mr Shah. Indeed, it is surprising that the Haryana CM appears to have persuaded the BJP chief that his government had taken the right steps in dealing with the Dera’s agitation. If Mr Shah fell for this victimhood act of Mr Khattar, he is clearly missing a trick. Else, he is being plain cynical in not wishing to let a BJP CM fall on the ground of poor work record. Such a tactic seldom yields results.

It is hard to know whose performance has been more inglorious Mr Khattar’s or Yogi Adityanath’s? If the Haryana leader was criticised by the Punjab and Haryana high court for playing politics in the Dera affair, the UP CM is guilty of mocking the people who have lost their infant children as a result of the unacceptable conditions in the government hospital which ran right under the nose of the CM in Gorakhpur.

Mr Modi will do well to remember that BJP won in UP and Haryana on account of him and not the Yogi, who is clearly unfit for administration by temperament, or Mr Khattar, an unknown RSS apparatchik before being made CM. It is he who will have to face the backlash of the misdeeds of these mocked state leaders.

It is surprising that the Haryana Chief Minister appears to have persuaded the BJP chief that his government had taken the right steps in dealing with the Dera’s agitation